


When Bull met Elspeth

by Penthesilea1623



Series: Tied, But Tenderly [1]
Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, First Meetings, baby Iron Bull, bedraggled kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 07:57:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3521492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penthesilea1623/pseuds/Penthesilea1623
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iron Bull meets Elspeth Trevelyan for the first time in the middle of a rainstorm on the Storm Coast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Bull met Elspeth

_Once during the rainy season in Par Vollen when he’d been a small boy he had found a kitten._

_He’d snuck outside after overhearing one of the tamassrans saying that the rain was coming down so hard they should just send the children outside instead of giving them all baths. He’d thought that was a fine idea and he’d gone outside to see if it were in fact feasible._

_It was certainly wet enough, but the rain was warm, and there was little wind. He held his face up to the sky, feeling the water run over his skin. It felt nice. Refreshing._

_And then he’d heard it: a small plaintive meow._

_He had to look around a bit before he found it behind some carefully stacked crates at the back of the building. It had been trapped by water pouring off the roof, a small tiger-striped orange kitten, malnourished, its fur soaked, filthy from the muddy ground and staring up at him with big blue eyes. He knelt down in the mud and reached to pick it up, thinking it would be glad to be rescued, but instead the kitten hissed and spat its outrage, struggling in his hand, leaving small scratches that stung but didn’t really hurt. He stood up again, holding it between his hands and ran quickly back to the dormitory as the kitten hissed and yowled its outrage._

_The tamassran looked up as he burst in, opening her mouth to reprimand him, both for having left the room and for the lack of control in his return, but before she could speak the kitten yowled again. She stood and crossed to where he stood by the door. “What have you found?” She asked him._

_He held his hands up and her face softened._

_“It was trapped in the rain.” He explained. “It might have been hurt if I hadn’t helped.”_

_The tamassran smiled at his earnestness. Her colleagues saw only his size and his strength, and thought that this one would be simply a soldier, a weapon turned on their opponents but there was more to him than that. He was sensitive, and he observed everything around him seeing things that others overlooked at first or missed entirely._

_Instead of scolding him she reached for a nearby towel and wrapped it around the kitten but left it in the hands of the imekari._

_“Dry the cat, but gently.” She instructed him._

_He complied as best he could, his hands clumsy at first. The cat continued its hissing, and the meows went from protesting to angry, punctuated with small low growls and batting of its tiny paws. “It’s angry.” He said with a frown. “We’re trying to help it. Why is it angry?”_

_“The kitten is scared more than angry. It thinks if we fear it, we will not get close and we will not harm it. Be gentle and let it learn you mean it no harm.”_

_The boy sank to the floor and continued to dry the cat, softly stroking its fur with the towel, wiping away both the mud and the water._

_The tamassran disappeared briefly and returned carrying a small bowl of some sort of finely chopped meat. The kitten was dry now and dozing off in the boy’s hands._

_She passed him the bowl. “See if it will take some food.” She told him._

_As soon as the kitten smelled the meat it opened its eyes and began meowing again, but this was a different sound, eager and demanding and the boy smiled as he held the bowl and the kitten eagerly devoured the meat. About halfway through its meal it began to purr, and the boy looked up with a delighted smile. “She’s happy now.”_

_The tamassran raised an eyebrow. “She?”_

_The child nodded. “I saw when I was drying her.” He stroked the kitten in his lap as she ate, putting the bowl on the floor when it was empty._

_The kitten curled up in his hand, her belly distended from her meal, her purring as loud as her growls had been, and fell sound asleep._

_The child looked up at the tamassran. “Can I keep her?” He asked, knowing what the answer would be even before the tamassran shook her head._

_“The cat would have no purpose here, no role.”_

_It would have a purpose, the boy thought, gently scratching the kitten on the side of her jaw. She rubbed her head against his hand, now utterly content. She would bring comfort and friendship. She would be there when I wake up from bad dreams, and I would care for her and she would care for me. He looked up when the tamassran knelt beside him._

_She reached out a hand and stroked the kitten, who purred even louder, and she smiled, and he saw something sad in her smile, as if she knew his thoughts. “We will take her to the kitchen and she can help keep mice and rats away, and in return she will be warm and fed.” The tamassran said. “The Qun has a role even for this small creature.” She continued to stroke the kitten, occasionally stroking the boy’s hand as well._

_“Tama, what will my role be in the Qun?” He asked after a moment._

_Her reply came without hesitation. “You are strong and your mind is sharp. You will solve problems that others cannot.” The Ben-Hassrath, she thought again. Something that would let him see more, something that would let him use that sharp mind, let him satisfy the curiosity he showed, and let him do it within the Qun. “That will be your role.” She told him firmly. Undirected, those thoughts and that curiosity would lead to doubts and those doubts might lead him away from the Qun. Her mind dismissed the idea. He needed the Ben-Hassrath, and the Ben-Hassrath needed him. That would be his role. She rose to her feet, even more determined than before that this would be so. “Come. We will take the kitten to the cook that it may fulfill its purpose.”_

 

Bull hadn’t thought of that kitten in years, not until the day he met Elspeth Trevelyan on the Storm Coast.

Krem had been surprisingly closemouthed about meeting this woman that all of Thedas was talking about, this mage who could close rifts with just the mark on her hand. That could mean one of two things: either Krem didn’t think Bull would be impressed by her, or he thought he would be, but for what Krem considered entirely the wrong reasons. 

Bull almost hoped it was the latter. That would make it much less complicated and a whole lot more fun. 

“Is she a redhead?” He’d asked eagerly.

“No.” Krem had replied. “She’s a blonde.” And he’d walked away.

Well, blonde was good too, Bull had thought at the time.

 

The Storm Coast was living up to its name that day. The skies were dark grey, a cold wind whipping in from the sea, and rain coming down so hard that visibility was limited to a few hundred yards. The Vints had taken full advantage of that and had snuck up on the Chargers. 

The fight was tough, but not unwinnable.

And then from the corner of his eye he saw a flash of lightning, but not from the sky. 

It came horizontal to the ground. From a mage, then.

It wasn’t a lightning strike, directed at one person, but a branch of lightning, striking out, hitting the Vints around him, but not him, and not his men. 

The Vints went rigid. A couple fell to the ground. One even pissed himself. 

That kind of spell? In this kind of weather without hitting any of his men? Now that was impressive.

The fight continued, their victory made immeasurably easier by the arrival of the woman they called the Herald of Andraste, and her companions. Caught up as he was in the battle he couldn’t get a good look at her. There were just glimpses of spells, the orange and heat of fire, a sudden blast of cold from an ice spell, the blinding flash of light and smell of ozone that was lightning, all of them, one after another with barely a rest between them.

Given what he knew about her, born a noblewoman but closed up in one of the Bas Circles since she was a child he hadn’t expected her to be able to fight. Had thought she’d remain at a distance. He’d thought her magic would be all defense, shields and barriers.

He’d been wrong.

Her magic seemed to be everywhere around him. In a streak of blue white light she charged into the midst of a group of Tevinter soldiers. A fraction of a second later a fireball burst out from the center of the group, and half a dozen men went staggering back, on fire, some completely engulfed, some only partially, but all of them screaming and panicking.

All but her. 

“Die!” He heard her shout, and it wasn’t a cry of fear, it was a cry of triumph. 

She was fantastic. 

He barely noticed the remaining Vints being cut down as he squinted through the pouring rain trying to get a better look at her. When the battle was done it took every bit of his years of training to stand there calling out orders as she exchanged a few words with her companions before crossing to stand in front of him. 

He kept his voice casual. “So you’re with the Inquisition. Glad you could make it. Have a seat. Drinks are coming.” He sat on one of the boulders that were scattered along the shore. 

She gave a sudden shiver from the cold, and stood there looking at him, shivering, thin, dripping wet, and scowling at him, and it was at that moment he thought of that kitten. That kitten he’d wanted to keep and take care of. 

To keep close. 

To be able to turn to when he woke in the middle of the night. 

She sneezed violently, and gave him a look that was downright suspicious. “You want to have drinks in the aftermath of a battle?” She asked in an accusing voice, and the scowl changed to a glare. She remained standing.

For just a moment he wondered what he had done to make her so angry and then his training kicked in, and he could hear his tamassran’s voice.

_The kitten is scared more than angry. It thinks if we fear it, we will not get close to it and we will not harm it. Be gentle and let it learn you mean it no harm._

That angry, malnourished, kitten with the big blue eyes, hissing and growling. If that kitten had been able to scowl it would have looked just like Elspeth Trevelyan did right now, he thought, taking his first good look at her.

She was soaked through, the sleeveless leather duster she wore heavy and dark with the rain, the olive velvet tunic beneath it matted and clinging to her.

Like the kitten she was small – tiny. If her head were covered by a hood she’d have easily been mistaken for an elf. Tiny and thin, far too thin. Her face was all angles, high cheekbones and hollow cheeks, a jaw so sharp that it could cut glass.

Didn’t they feed mages in those Circles? 

She wore a great deal of black kohl lining her eyes which was now smudged and smeared. The eyes themselves were a soft light blue. Her skin which at first glance he’d thought sallow, was actually so fair, so light that it reflected the muddy colors she was wearing. Her hair…

Krem had been wrong. Her hair wasn’t simply blonde. It was a blonde so pale it was almost silver. Even plastered to her head with the rain, the color hadn’t darkened.

He wondered if it was as soft as it looked. 

_Get her to relax._

He exchanged jokes and insults with Krem, and her expression remained unchanged. 

He reiterated the offer to work for the Inquisition and her frown deepened worrying about the cost.

He quickly assured her that her ambassador would handle the cost and for the first time she seemed to waver. 

She looked around at the bodies that littered the beach. “The Chargers seem like an excellent company.” 

“They are.” He assured her. “But you’re not just getting the boys. You’re getting me. You need a frontline bodyguard. I’m your man.” He said getting to his feet and moving towards her. “Whatever it is. Demons. Dragons. The bigger the better.” 

She’d stopped looking suspicious and looked interested now. 

_Let it know you mean it no harm._

As much as she resembled that small bedraggled kitten right now, she was human, not animal. So how did that translate? How to let her know he wasn’t a danger to her?

Trust. He needed to show her she could trust him. He considered his options and then took the biggest gamble of his career. “And there’s something else you should know. Might be useful. Might piss you off. Ever hear of the Ben-Hassrath?”

She hadn’t. He told her all about it. Told her that he was part of it. Told her exactly what that would mean for her and for the Inquisition. 

She asked questions, listened to his answers and then looked out at the ocean for a few minutes, her scowl firmly back in place before turning to face him again.

“You run your reports past Leliana before sending them. You send nothing she doesn’t approve. If this turns out to be a trick, or if your reports compromise the Inquisition, Cassandra will eat you alive.” 

She looked so fierce that he found himself thinking again of that hissing and spitting kitten and he couldn’t help grinning. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” He shouted more orders to Krem to get the men ready to move. “See you in Haven.” He told her, and walked away.

 

As the Chargers packed their gear and readied for the trip, Bull was thinking of both of those sets of blue eyes, the Herald’s and the kitten’s, and he found himself smiling. 

“It’s a risky thing to do, Chief.” 

He glanced down at Krem, surprised by the remark. Krem had seemed in favor of it when he’d been sent to make contact with the Inquisition. “The Inquisition’s controversial, but they’re the only group around here right now that doesn’t have their heads up their asses. They’ll come out on top, you’ll see.”

“That wasn’t the risk I was talking about.” Krem said dryly.

He forced himself laugh. “What? The Herald? She’s not my type.” And until an hour ago the statement might have been true.

“Uh-huh.” Said Krem. “Sure she isn’t.” And he walked away.

Bull watched him leave. Krem didn’t miss much, he’d give him that. It was what made him such a good second-in-command. 

He stood there for a moment before his thoughts returned to those blue eyes and the silver gilt hair, even to that scowl, which he’d decided was actually pretty damned sexy.

He wondered how long it would take for him to make Elspeth Trevelyan purr with happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> Tied but Tenderly pictures references and other Dragon Age: Inquisition related things can be found on my tumblr
> 
>  
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> [Tied, but Tenderly references and inspiration](http://penthesilea1623.tumblr.com/search/tied+but+tenderly)


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